Frederick Ahrens

Ahrens, Frederick
Frederick (Fritz) Martin Ahrens was born January 24, 1927 in Salamanca, New York to Adolph and Pauline Ahrens. Growing up he enjoyed the outdoors and at age 17 he joined the U.S. Navy where he served on a destroyer and air craft carrier during World War II. After discharge he attended RIT and completed the electrical program in three years. He loved trains and worked on the Erie-Lackawanna railroad in Salamanca for many years. He married Elaine Audrey Raiber on June 6, 1952 and they had four sons; Paul John, Lee Martin, David Frederick and Dean Roy. After spending time at a nuclear fuel plant, he began a second career working for AMAX at a plant in New York and then at the Climax and Henderson mines in Colorado. Upon retirement in 1984, he and Elaine moved to Peoria, Arizona where they spent many happy years. Elaine died on July 16, 1997. Fritz married Barbara Beth Pepper on November 6, 1998 and they moved to Sun City, Arizona. In April 2010, he was diagnosed with B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Because his heart was only functioning at 25-30%, they were unable to give him the treatment of choice. After an amazing fight through the chemo, he was told in October that the cancer was gone. However, the remission was short lived and by Christmas it had returned and took a tough toll on his body. Though he fought courageously, he lost the final battle on February 23, 2011 at a group home in Sun City, AZ at 84 years of age. He is survived by his wife Barbara, his sons and their wives, Paul and Jolene of Buena Vista, CO (grandchildren Brad and Joy Carr [great-grandchildren Anna and Matthew] of Ft. Worth, TX); Lee and Kelly (granddaughter Dallas) of Boulder City, NV; David and Erin of Juneau, AK (grandchildren Marie [great-grandchildren Victoria and Faith]), Ashley and Erica of Juneau and Steffan and Johnnie [grandchildren Danielle and one on the way] of Colorado Springs, CO); and Dean and Mary of Blooming Prairie, MN (grandchildren Zachariah, Ruth and Hannah) and (grandchildren Michael and Tori Bias [great-grandson Wyatt of Denver, CO] . Step-children Adrienne Riddle (Amber and Steve Gould and Brandon); Jerome Riddle; Linda and Paul Hirschi (Madison, Hannah and Blake); Michael and Laura; and Autumn and Mark Heller (Tatiana, Christiana and Trace) all of Phoenix, AZ. Ahrens is also survived by sisters Clara (Bud) Wagner and Rita Wymer of Salamanca, N.Y. and Helen Babcock of Olean, N.Y. Fritz will be cremated by the Menke Funeral Home in Sun City and requested no services be held.
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